Glad to hear that you’re interested in such arcana! If you want to learn more about this, and other food science topics, get the reference I use the most: Harold McGee’s “On Food & Cooking.”

The article I mentioned was for an encyclopedia that wasn’t just about food science… there’s a lot of food & culture, which may or may not be what you seek.

Thanks again.

Another thought:

The six minutes does seem short… but not short enough to lead to the 30 minutes you encountered. However, you should remember that Pepin is used to using a commercial stove that produces FAR more BTUs than any home stove.

You are absolutely right in mentioning the Maillard reaction — it makes all the calculations much more complex. I’ll deal only with the sugar/caramelization issue here.

Even that involves two different consideration: temperature and time.

Temperature:

“Caramelization of sugar begins around 310F. Color first starts to appear at 334F (for sucrose — temperatures vary for different sugars). When it reaches the light caramel stage (at 356F), many complex chemical reactions change simple sugars into a host of different flavoring compounds. One of the compounds created during caramelization is diacetyl (C4H6O2), which has a warm buttery scent, but there are also traces of as many as one hundred sweet, sour, and bitter compounds. The complexity of the resulting mixture makes the flavor of butterscotch more interesting than the mere sweetness of sugar. Of course, a number of yellow and brown water-soluble polymers are also produced, which accounts for caramel’s coloration.”

Source: Allen, Gary. “Caramelization.” Encyclopedia of Food and Culture, New York: Scribner’s & Sons, 2002

Time:

It’s difficult to answer this because there are too many possible variables:

How much mass is being raised to a specific temperature? (we know the answer to this from the recipe)

How large is the cooking container holding the ingredient? What is it made of? How much mass does IT have? (these are unknowns)

What was the starting temperature of ingredients and container? (these are unknowns)

How much heat does the particular stove produce? (yet another unknown)

If you’ve ever cooked in someone else’s kitchen — with unfamiliar stove, pots and pans — you already know how disconcerting those variables can be.

The caramels are thick, chewy, and deep in their flavor without adding a thing, though chocolate never hurts. I made plain and chocolate-dipped caramels, and will continue in my experimentation with flavors: a teaspoon of orange-blossom essence added to the sugar water provides a subtle perfume, and topping dipped caramels with ground pistachio or other nuts is one more way to dress them up, though none of this is necessary.

One important bit of advice, if you are a rogue cook who likes to wing it without recommended equipment: Do not make these caramels without a candy thermometer. Once the cream and butter are added to the sugar, the process goes quickly—for me, several minutes faster than the recipe stated—and you can easily overcook the caramel for your taste if you rely solely on a time indication. A degree or two of temperature variation has a big impact on the texture of the caramels, so watch for that 240°F to 245°F (115°C to 118°C) range and pull the caramel from the heat without delay, according to your preference for soft or hard caramel.

For cutting and dipping: While my caramels were still too soft to cut fully after 4 hours (they needed that extra hour), I nevertheless scored them into 20 pieces to make cutting that much easier, once the caramels were hard. If you’re using chocolate, make sure it cools a bit to thicken before dipping the caramels, to minimize the spread of liquid chocolate once you put caramels back down on the baking sheet.

Wrapping the finished caramels individually in clear plastic shows off their gorgeous rich-brown color. I placed mine in tiny cellophane bags and tied them off with multicolored ribbons for favors for guests who came to visit, and they were a huge success.